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Report: US economy to grow 1.5% in 2014

By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press,

Posted:
08/28/2014 12:10:35 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday forecast that the U.S. economy will grow by just 1.5 percent in 2014, undermined by a poor performance during the first three months of the year.

The new assessment was considerably more pessimistic than the Obama administration’s, which predicted last month that the economy would expand by 2.6 percent this year even though it contracted by an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the first quarter.

The economy did grow by 0.9 percent during the first half of 2014.

Looking ahead, the CBO said it expected the economy to grow by 3.4 percent over 2015 and 2016, and predicted that the unemployment rate would remain below 6 percent into the future.

The economy went into reverse at the beginning of this year, reeling from an unusually harsh winter that disrupted consumer spending, factory production and other business activity.

Growth in the gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, recovered in the second quarter, advancing at an annual rate of 4 percent, according to the government’s first estimate. That forecast will be revised today.

Even with the rebound, economists have lowered their outlook for the entire year, given the weak start. Economists at JPMorgan Chase are forecasting that the economy will grow by 1.9 percent this year, when measured from the fourth quarter, down from 3.1 percent in 2013.

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The CBO also projected that the government would run a deficit of $506 billion for the budget year that ends Sept. 30. That would be the lowest level of Barack Obama’s presidency.

When the deficit is measured against the size of the economy, the comparison used most by analysts, it is within historic levels at 2.9 percent of GDP. Last year’s deficit was $680 billion.

The deficit spiked at $1.4 trillion in Obama’s first year in office and remained above $1 trillion for his entire first term.

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